Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Jeremy Clarkson's ex-wife penning book about 'affair'

Days after Jeremy Clarkson lifted a gagging order on his first wife – who claims they had an affair after he married again – comes the news she has written a book.

Alex Hall has enlisted the help of Max Clifford to help her find a publisher.

The PR boss says her story could even be turned in to a film.

"There's an awful lot of interest," he says. "The book is written and ready to go. I shall be having talks with publishers."

Jeremy married Alex, now 46, in 1989 but they split less than two years later. He married his current wife Frances, 50 (pictured below) in 1993.

The Top Gear presenter won an injunction against the first Mrs Clarkson – an entrepreneur who has appeared on Dragon's Den – last year to stop her publishing details about his private life.

These details included claims that the former couple had a seven or eight year affair after he remarried – claims which Jeremy denies.

At the time the presenter could be described in the press only as "a married TV star" and the identity of his first wife was kept a secret.

He explained his reasons for seeking an injunction as follows: ‘I dish the dirt out and I can take it. But why should my mother and children have to take it?"

"In 20 years I have taken any number of stories, most of which are not true, without a murmur of complaint. But some stories you have to draw the line and say no."

The 51-year-old had a change of heart though, and ultimately decided to have the court order lifted, effectively unmasking himself.

"I regretted doing it from the day I took out the injunction," he said after lifting it, saying the court bans "don't work".

"You take out an injunction against somebody or some organisation and immediately news of that injunction and the people involved and the story behind the injunction is in a legal-free world on Twitter and the internet. It's pointless."

The star also explained that his mother was "desperately ill" at the time he sought the ban.

Now he wants the allegations to be judged in public, he says.

"She is now free to tell her story and people can go 'I believe that, I absolutely believe that' or they can say 'What a load of rubbish' but people can decide not the courts."

If Jeremy had not dropped the ban, the case would probably have gone to court. This would have added expense to the original injunction, which is estimated to have cost him £250,000 to maintain.

For her part, Alex says she wants to tell her story for "cathartic" reasons.

"All I want is for the truth to come out about my life," she said.

"I am a decently educated, middle-class mother. I am not a prostitute. I am not a kiss’n’tell-monger. I simply want to write a book."

Alex met Jeremy when she was 17 and he was 20, and they wed seven years later.

They split after two years – Alex says she left Jeremy for one of his friends. She then went on to marry Stephen Hall, with whom she had two children, but separated from him in 2001.

After finding fame Jeremy fell in love with his manager Frances – known to friends as Francie. The couple married in 1993 and have three children.